The transportation of sulfur as a water slurry in pipeline is well known in the art as noted by reference to U.S. Pat. No. 2,917,345 or 2,947,578. In making such a sulfur-water slurry, the sulfur is generally sprayed in molten form into water to form a slurry which can be transported through a pipeline. Formation of a stable non-corrosive slurry wherein the sulfur does not undergo any undesirable change and cause corrosion or the slurry does not exhibit a tendency to wide variation in viscosity is essential to the process in addition to other problems which may be encountered during its transportation through a pipeline. Thus, separation of the sulfur from the carrier fluid, plating or coating of the sulfur on equipment and pipeline walls causing plugging of the pipeline, corrosion, viscosity changes due to pressure and temperature variations encountered in the line requiring increases in pumping power which increases operation costs, etc., are only a few of the problems normally encountered in making sulfur-water slurried for transporting through pipelines.
Although the above are serious problems for consideration in making and transporting sulfur slurries through pipelines, nevertheless the transportation of sulfur in slurry form through pipelines can be made to be an effective and economic means of transportation, particularly since sulfur is recovered or obtained from isolated, remote and inaccessible areas, and must be transported to desired accessible areas. As noted above, a number of methods have been proposed for making sulfur slurries for pipeline transportation of such slurries such as injecting molten sulfur into water thereby forming a sulfur slurry for pipeline transportation. Such sulfur slurries when transporting through pipelines generally do not overcome the corrosion, coating and/or plugging problems described above.
An object of the present invention is to prepare for pipeline transportation a sulfur-water slurry which is stable, flowable and noncorrosive.
Another object of the present invention is to transport through a pipeline sulfur-water slurry without causing sulfur coating, deposition or plugging or corrosion of the pipeline.
Still another object of the invention is to form a slurry of sulfur in water, which when formed is stable, non-corrosive, and does not cause plugging when said slurry is transported through a pipeline and from which the sulfur can be readily recovered as essentially pure sulfur at the terminal end of the line.
Another object is to transfer sulfur as a water slurry by pipeline over great distances under non-corrosive conditions and at reduced pumping and handling costs.
Other objects will be apparent from the following description.